WANNA BE STARTIN' SOMETHIN'

Breaking into the industry, these uprising local photographers are curating new grooves for fashion photography.

- Syazil Abd Rahim

SYAZWAN A. (@___SYZWN)

How and when did you discover that you’re into fashion photography?

I started learning photography in 2013 when I was studying in Scotland. I received a call to photograph Ezzati Amira’s S/S ’15 campaign and Mimpikita’s S/S ’16 runway backstage at London Fashion Week in 2015 – that was my first introduction to the fashion scene.

When I shoot, it is always context first and human behaviour is basically a response to a given situation. They were reflected in my early works, like Ezzati Amira’s campaign, where the quarry site invoked me to play with scale and distance. Meanwhile in London, the ambience of a poorly lit and intense backstage made me produce images that were more realistic. I defied the use of flashlight and photographed my subject in their most natural state, bearing in mind my works were about exhibiting fashion as an “experience” rather than commercial.

Can you tell us more about your photography style?

Once diaristic, now it’s getting more thematic. The module changes in response to what I encounter, but nevertheless, it usually centralises on depicting the emotion and experience of a place or a subject. Simplified aesthetic but highly attentive towards details and sense of actuality, they are the core qualities I incorporate into my works; the relationship between human and space. Too occupied with the presence, I begin to visualise the past and future. I ambitiously take photography on a voyage of time.

Some photographers travel to be inspired. What about you?